There is a quote that goes like this – “Numbers don’t lie”. But, when it comes to your Facebook Fan page, the number of fans does not necessary tell you the truth about how successful your social media marketing campaign is.
When a company first decides to set up a presence on Facebook, they are usually all about the numbers. Their main request is – Get me lots of Facebook fans! There are many companies whose sole business is to sell you Facebook fans – for a fee you can get a set number of fans liking your page. However, as good as the numbers look, it’s what you do with these numbers that counts.
A page may have 10,000 fans but if the page has a low interaction rate; is this a successful social media campaign? I have always said … social media is about building communities. This means building a community of people who are genuine fans of the brand and who, in turn, will become unofficial ambassadors for the brand through recommendations to their social circles.
So how do you build a Community of Genuine Fans?
1. Interaction – There is nothing worse than a company that uses their Facebook page to update us with boring posts on their products and services. Telling your customers how great your company is or what products you have to offer is hardly going to get you many responses. Think outside the box! Find cool articles and images around your industry. For example – if you are a clothing store – post interesting links about the fashion industry, pics of new fashion trends and relate them to your business. These types of responses have a much better interaction level as people will comment of photos or give their opinion of an article if it was interesting.
2. Reward Fans – Studies have shown that people make a large part of their shopping decisions based on referrals/advice from friends and family. Loyal fans of a brand will end up recommending you to other people. This type of advertising has a high conversion rate, as people trust recommendations that come from friends above traditional advertising. So how do you get loyal fans? – make them feel special. Run promotions for fans where they can get a certain percentage off when they make a purchase. Send free samples of your product to fans who refer others to your page.
3. Create a Hype – Nothing creates hype like a great competition! Look at Brutal Fruit’s Facebook page
– they received such hype when they decided to bring Kim Kardashian down to South Africa to launch their new Cheeky Cranberry flavour. Fans of the page could enter to win an invite to an exclusive dinner and, through the hype, their fan base grew extensively. Whilst you may not be able to have an international superstar as your brand ambassador, giving away cool prizes is a great way to build hype and give your fan page a viral element.
4. Talk to your Fans – A fan page is a great place to get honest and free consumer research. Use the poll feature to find out what people think of a particular service or product you offer, what could be improved etc. Also, make sure you respond to fan questions and comments in a timely manner. As a social media marketer it is a must to have a Smartphone – setup alerts for your Facebook account so you can receive notifications when someone writes on the wall. This means you can reply to fans anytime, anywhere. People appreciate a prompt response and it shows that there is a real person behind the page and not some automated robot.
If you are running a Facebook fan page, you really need to take the time to interact with your fans as well as give them interesting, relevant information that will keep them coming back to the page. Your fans have the potential to become your biggest referrers of new business, so stop focusing solely on the numbers and start building a community today!
